2 February is World Wetlands Day Annually

2 February each year is World Wetlands Day (WWD). This day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar on the shores of the Caspian Sea. Each year since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat has provided materials so that government agencies, non-governmental organisations, conservation organisations and groups of citizens can help raise public awareness about the importance and value of wetlands.

From 1997 to 2011, the Convention's website has posted reports from more than 120 countries of WWD activities of all types, from lectures and seminars, nature walks, children's art contests, sampan races and community clean-up days, to radio and television interviews and letters to newspapers, to the launch of new wetland policies, new Ramsar sites and new programmes at the national level. Government agencies and private citizens from all over the world have sent us their news, often with photographs, and these annual summaries and over 1,000 individual reports, with more than 1,400 images, make an excellent archive of ideas for future celebrations.

And each year since 1997, the Ramsar Secretariat has offered a new selection of posters, stickers, videos, pocket calendars, leaflets and information packs free of charge and has suggested a unifying theme for the benefit of those who wish to use it.